Proposal draft

Submit Your Proposal

Please read the instructions below or click on here for the entire overview of the proposal and final paper submission.

The first step of the project is to write a brief (no more than 2-3 double spaced pages) proposal for your final essay. In the proposal, you should identify:

– the media artifact you intend to analyze,

– the critical lens you plan to use,

– the probable argument of the eventual paper, and

– at least 3 annotated scholarly sources (peer reviewed journal articles, scholarly books, or scholarly book chapters) to be used in the paper, cited in APA style

o annotations should comprise 2-3 sentences: in 1-2 sentences, summarize the argument of the article; then, in 1 more sentence, explain how you expect the article will help you in making your argument in the paper

for assistance finding sources, see the library resource page in Canvas, including helpful videos; consult with a reference librarian or Prof. Hungerford if you have questions.
The grade for the proposal will be based on: The appropriateness of your artifact selection (20%) and critical lens (20%), the plausibility of your proposed argument or thesis statement (20%), the quality of your scholarly sources and annotations (20%), writing quality (10%), and APA style (10%).

In addition, I have also provided my own grading rubric here that might be useful when writing and evaluating your final paper due at the end of the semester.

Proposal and Final Paper Guidelines
Now that you have spent several modules reading and critiquing scholarly examples of media criticism, you have the opportunity to produce your own polished piece of media criticism. Recall these course objectives:
– select a media artifact to analyze and an appropriate critical lens to use
– produce a polished piece of media criticism.

To that end, you should select a media artifact to analyze. You might analyze a film, a television show (a series, a season, a few key episodes, depending on your argument), an advertising campaign, a body of mainstream discourse such as news coverage about a particular topic, an activist or social movement use of media, or another appropriate media text. Your eventual goal is to write an essay where you make an original interpretive argument about the media text from one of the critical perspectives or lens we discussed in class (rhetorical, cultural, feminist, queer, or activist/applied).
The first step of the project is to write a brief (no more than 2-3 double spaced pages) proposal for your final essay. In the proposal, you should identify:
– the media artifact you intend to analyze,
– the critical lens you plan to use,
– the probable argument of the eventual paper, and
– at least 3 annotated scholarly sources (peer reviewed journal articles, scholarly books, or scholarly book chapters) to be used in the paper, cited in APA style
o annotations should comprise 2-3 sentences: in 1-2 sentences, summarize the argument of the article; then, in 1 more sentence, explain how you expect the article will help you in making your argument in the paper
for assistance finding sources, see the library resource page in Canvas, including helpful videos; consult with a reference librarian or Dr. Hungerford if you have questions.
The grade for the proposal will be based on: The appropriateness of your artifact selection (20%) and critical lens (20%), the plausibility of your proposed argument or thesis statement (20%), the quality of your scholarly sources and annotations (20%), writing quality (10%), and APA style (10%).

Your final essay should comprise 2000-2600 words (+ citations and a reference list in APA style). I’m looking for (at least):
* a clear argument—this means you need a thesis statement that previews main points,
* analysis of the media artifact—NOT just a summary or description of the artifact—I should learn something new about rhetoric or media, about your artifact, or both, that I wouldn’t know from just watching/reading the media artifact itself, including examples from the artifact that support your analysis,
* logical organization, complete with transitions,
* some contextual information about the media artifact, and
* citations to other communication scholarship about similar media genres, about your particular artifact (if applicable), and/or about your critical lens (you must establish what we already know in order to build on it with your analysis). You must cite at least 6 scholarly sources (peer reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters) beyond the material you read for the class.
* for assistance finding sources, see the library resource page in Canvas, including helpful videos; consult with a reference librarian or Leland if you have questions.
In addition, I suggest that you meet with me at least once (via Google Hangouts or face to face) during your writing process. Visit office hours or email me to schedule an appointment.
As you work, please refer to the Lessl, Lacroix, Maddux, Petermon & Spencer, and Johnson articles from class for examples of media criticism. Remember, in each case, you learn something from reading the article that you wouldn’t learn from just reading or watching the media being analyzed. The same should be true of the papers you write.
The grade for the final paper will be based on the originality of your argument (20%), quality of your analysis (20%), research & supporting material, including contextual information where important for your argument (20%), organization (20%), writing quality (10%), and APA style (10%).

IMPORTANT: Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, on the proposal or the final paper, will result in a score of zero on the paper and the initiation of the university-approved process for responding to allegations of academic dishonesty. The paper and proposal are individual assignments that should reflect your own original thoughts.
Note: In the past, I have taken students to different local, regional, or national Communication Association Undergraduate Honors Conferences. If you have any interest in submitting to the conference, we can make some alterations to the assignment to make it appropriate for submitting to a conference (this is more work, but it is a good idea if you have an interest in attending graduate school [academic degree, law school, seminary, etc.] or if you want to affiliate with a professional organization). Let me know as soon as possible if this is of interest to you.